GEIS-新闻详情

Judge orders immediate enforcement of Georgia election workers' $148M judgment against Giuliani

2023-12-22 00:00:00.0 ABC新闻-政治新闻原网页

Judge orders immediate enforcement of Georgia election workers' $148M judgment against Giuliani A jury last week ordered Giuliani to pay $148 million for defaming the women.

By Lucien Bruggeman

December 21, 2023, 8:50 AM

8:17

Former Mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani speaks during a news conference outside the fed...Show MoreShow More

Jose Luis Magana/AP, FILE

A federal judge on Wednesday granted former Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss' request to expedite their $148 million judgment against Rudy Giuliani, saying that the mother and daughter have "good cause" to fear Giuliani may attempt to avoid paying them.

Following a week-long trial, a federal jury last week ordered Giuliani to pay nearly $150 million to the two women for defaming them with false accusations that they committed election fraud while counting ballots in Georgia's Fulton County on Election Day in 2020.

MORE: Giuliani defamation trial: Jury awards election workers nearly $150 million

Freeman and Moss subsequently asked the judge to "permit immediate enforcement" of the judgment out of concern that the former New York City mayor could attempt to "find a way to dissipate [his] assets before plaintiffs are able to recover."

Judge Beryl Howell agreed Wednesday that Giuliani's record as an "unwilling and uncooperative litigant" provides the plaintiffs "good cause to believe that he will seek to dissipate or conceal his assets" before paying them.

Former Mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani speaks during a news conference outside the federal courthouse in Washington, D.C., Dec. 15, 2023.

Jose Luis Magana/AP, FILE

Howell added that other civil cases filed against Giuliani -- including one filed by his former attorney, Robert Costello, and another filed by President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden -- "raise the risk that Giuliani has even greater motivation to hide his financial assets from potential future judgments against him."

If Giuliani intends to appeal the judgment, which he has indicated he plans to do, he "would have to comply with the usual requirement of a full supersedeas bond," Howell wrote, meaning that he may have to post a bond in the full amount of the judgment, Howell said.